Regional

12:49 pm

Sun August 16, 2009

Cold Case Murder Arrest

New Mexico – Police say they've solved the murder of a 74-year-old Farmington woman whose body was found bound and gagged in her home 20 years ago.

Farmington police Sgt. Robert Perez says detectives arrested 46-year-old Jimmie Lee on Thursday and charged him with murder and kidnapping for the 1989 death of Thelma Kline.

Perez says a cold-case unit reviewing old crimes sent evidence to the state police crime lab for analysis. The crime lab matched a DNA sample to Lee, an inmate at the state prison in Grants.

Detectives interviewed Lee and he admitted being responsible for Kline's murder. Perez says Lee told them he broke into Kline's home to steal items. Kline died of suffocation because of the way Lee bound and gagged her.

Perez says Lee is remorseful and blamed drug and alcohol abuse for the crime.